Cadence
by Fliers
Summary: Studying music is difficult enough, Luka thought, without throwing all of this into the mix. Luka/Miku


**Hey everyone. I wrote this story completely randomly haha...listened to too much classical music I guess. Hope you enjoy!**

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"It's weird for Vocalo to get transfers in the middle of the semester," said Lily with a grin, her breaths white puffs in the cold air. She brushed an unruly lock of blonde hair away from her face and looked at Luka appraisingly. "Didn't like your old school?"

Luka shrugged, rubbed her arms in a token attempt to ward off the chill. "No...my father wanted me to go here." What she didn't say was, _My father teaches here._

"Oh, really?" said Lily. "You can't be bad though, if you got in." She laughed, a bright clear sound in the muted winter landscape. There was no snow, but the sky was a featureless shade of light gray, the buildings of the conservatory clearly etched against it. The trees along the path were stripped bare of leaves. Even the flowers that grew along the path were subdued in color, the green of the leaves faded, the hues of the petals indistinct. "What are you studying?"

"Piano," said Luka.

"Ah, figures. The piano department is the second-biggest here. I'm in strings," said Lily. "If you're going to be playing piano..." Lily glanced around before her steps slowed in front of an old two-story building, all red brick and crawling ivy, the windows frosted, the door heavy and wooden. Lily waved an arm at it carelessly. "You'll be spending a lot of time here. It's the old piano building. They're going to tear it down though, at the end of the year."

"Why?" said Luka, blinking at the building, trying to commit its features to memory.

"'Cause, back in the day, graduates used to plant sprigs of ivy around this building," said Lily. "Though, they found out the ivy weakens the structure or some shit like that, gets into the mortar, I don't know. This building is on its last legs. Safety regulations and all, so they'll be building a new one over the summer."

Luka nodded, only half-listening to Lily's words. She could hear, faintly, an unfamiliar melody being played on the piano. A sonata, from the sound of it, each note weighed with a sense of melancholy. Most likely an original composition.

"Plus, it isn't soundproofed," Lily continued. "Explains why you can hear that all the way out here."

"It doesn't sound bad," said Luka.

Lily laughed. "Good thing it doesn't!" Once she said that, however, a brief look of vague worry passed across her face, and Lily glanced down at her watch. "Oh, shit. Almost forgot, I have to practice with my quartet today. We'll be playing Brahms, most likely." She rolled her eyes.

"What's wrong with Brahms?"

Lily sighed. "We've been having a lot of trouble with him. See, his first string quartet - the C minor - that was added completely at the last minute, it's a total mess. It would've been fine if we just stuck to the original program, but Gakupo's teacher wanted him to add this in and...whatever," Lily waved a hand. "Quartet problems. Anyways, I'm really sorry about bailing on you suddenly, I know I was supposed to give you the grand tour and all."

Luka opened her mouth to say that it's fine, that she could manage, but Lily beat her to the punch.

"Tell you what," said Lily, glancing speculatively at the piano building, "how about you ask whoever's playing inside to pick up where I left off? People here are pretty friendly."

Luka furrowed her eyebrows. "But they're in the middle of practicing. Isn't it rude to butt in?"

"A little," said Lily, "but you're a new student. Say you got lost. Or you can say that Masuda Lily bailed on you. Sound good?"

"Uh..." Luka stared at Lily, and then she sighed. Might as well. "Okay."

"Great," Lily smiled and casually flicked her hand up in a wave. "I'll see you around." That said, Lily turned and continued walking down the road. Luka looked back at the piano building and, taking a short breath, stepped up the stairs. The handle was cold against her hand as she pushed the door open. A rush of warm air hit her, driving away the chill as effectively as a cleaner driving away dust mites, and blinking Luka looked around.

The interior of the building was rather plain and simple, the floor hardwood. A line of windowless doors stretched out to Luka's left and right. Luka listened, harder. The melody was clearer now, and Luka walked over to the source. It seemed to be coming from the third door on Luka's left. Whoever was playing the piece seemed somewhat distracted - there were occasional, odd pauses, and the playing itself was a little choppy. After a little, the playing stopped completely. Luka waited, hoping that maybe the pianist would come out on their own and Luka could ask for their help then, but it became apparent after a while that that wouldn't be happening anytime soon. Luka took a breath and then, clasping her hand around the doorknob, opened the door. The door swung open smoothly, hinges well-oiled and silent.

Inside the room, there was a girl seated at the piano, a Yamaha grand. She had long teal hair, done up in twin-tails, and her eyes were fixed on an old music sheet. She was sitting cross-legged on the piano bench, studying the score intensely. Her bangs obscured her eyes, and she was tapping a pencil meditatively against her lips. She didn't seem to have noticed Luka's sudden intrusion.

Luka, for her part, wasn't exactly sure what to say, and she suddenly found herself regretting the fact that she took Lily's advice. It wasn't like Vocalo was a big school - Luka was sure she could have found her way around eventually. Now that she was in, though, she could hardly leave and close the door behind her without saying _something,_ and Luka stood there for a few long moments, at loss, before deciding to clear her throat.

The sound was almost obscenely loud in the practice room, and the teal-haired girl gave a small jolt before she looked up at Luka. Her eyes were a startling shade of light blue, Luka noticed.

"Um," said Luka, once she got the girl's attention. "Hi."

The girl stared at Luka for a long moment, brows furrowed slightly. When she answered, her voice was slightly guarded. "Hello."

Luka chewed on her lip. "Uh...I'm sorry for barging in all of a sudden, it was just...I'm a new transfer student and I got lost."

"Transfer student," said the girl. She said the words as though they were from a foreign language. There was a long silence, the awkwardness an almost physical presence.

"What song were you playing?" Luka asked, unable to take the stretched-out quiet anymore.

The girl looked down at the score she was holding, and to Luka's surprise, a small blush formed on her pale cheeks. "Oh, this? It's nothing," she said. "Nothing important. So...so you're a transfer student? What are you studying?" Luka's question seemed to have shocked the girl into speaking.

"I'm studying piano," said Luka.

The girl blinked, and then a wide smile spread on her face. "Oh! You're studying piano? Me too!" The girl got up and put the score she was working on away. "What's your name?"

"I'm Luka."

"Luka..." the girl said the name to herself, nodding. "Okay. It's nice to meet you, Luka," she smiled. "I'm Miku! Umm, so you got lost, you said...where were you looking for?"

"Nowhere in particular," said Luka as she committed Miku's name to memory. "I'm really sorry for barging in, by the way. Masuda Lily was showing me around, but she had to go practice with her quartet. If you could just show me where the dorm is, that'd be good."

"The dorm?" said Miku. "That's no problem. Um, let's see," Miku closed her eyes, put a hand to her chin in thought. "If you...um, once you leave this building, turn left and keep walking until you reach Oster Hall. Then you turn right. Keep walking and you'll find the dorm on your left."

Left, Oster, right, left. Simple enough to remember. "Thank you," said Luka.

Miku smiled. "Glad to help! Oh, and welcome to Vocalo!"

xxx

Luka's room was small and cramped, barely large enough to fit the two beds that dominated it. The desks were little more than wooden afterthoughts jammed in at the heads of the beds. It was also completely empty - Luka figured that her roommate, a Sakine Meiko, was practicing or something of the sort. Judging from how bare the walls were, Meiko wasn't big on decoration too. With a grunt Luka hauled her luggage in and placed it by the drawers under her bed. She flicked on the lightswitch by the sink before beginning to, methodically, unpack.

Luka was just about finished and stowing her luggage away in some alcove in the closet when the door swung open and a girl with short brown hair walked in, yawning hugely, eyes closed. Meiko, Luka assumed. Meiko opened her eyes, also brown, and seemed to look everywhere around the room with faint confusion before her gaze landed on Luka.

"Oh," said Meiko. "You're late."

It was an uninspiring way to begin a conversation. "Yeah..." Luka said. "I got lost on the way."

"Lost? Weren't you assigned a guide or something when you signed in at the office?" Meiko shrugged off her messenger bag before jumping up to sit on her bed.

"I was, but she had to leave partway for quartet practice."

"Ah," said Meiko. "So, you had Lily." The way she said it sounded as though Lily was some awful disease. "You should watch out for that girl. She has the biggest ego on campus."

"Really?" said Luka.

"Yeah, what with the entire strings department going crazy about her," Meiko sighed. "She and Gakupo, the two bright lights of strings, or whatever. They have a reputation. What do you study?"

"I study piano."

"Me too," said Meiko. "So, if Lily ditched you - not a surprise, by the way, she does that all the time - who showed you to the dorm? Unless you found it yourself?"

"Miku did...she, um, studies piano too," said Luka. A slight frown touched her lips. It seemed as though a lot of people studied piano. Even though Lily had told her before that the piano department was the second-biggest, it was a little surprising to see that fact in reality. If that was the case, then standing out from the crowd would only be that much harder.

"Miku," Meiko repeated. "Never heard of anyone with that name. If she's not a freshman, she must not be very good."

"What? Why? She sounded good when I met her."

Meiko laughed suddenly, a sharp sound in the bare room. "Just 'good'? Look, if you're going to study here, you have to learn one thing. Good isn't enough. 'Good' is just what gets you into the school, through the auditions. To really stand out, you have to be _extraordinary."_

"Extraordinary?"

"Yeah," said Meiko, and she sighed and fell back on the bed. "It's logical, isn't it? Think about it. The people who go here are all the types you'd expect; they won competitions, played in festivals, did recitals, all that. They might be the top ten percent of whatever region they're from, and they go here. But it's just plain statistics...not everyone can stand out here. When everyone is good," Meiko's voice became a little distant, "good isn't good anymore. Good is the bare minimum."

Luka stared at Meiko. She wasn't really sure what to say; Meiko painted a bleak picture with her words. Still, it made sense...

"You probably think you're pretty impressive," said Meiko, her voice still faraway, "but being somebody here is hard."

There was a long pause, one Luka broke by somewhat timidly venturing, "Are you somebody?"

Meiko laughed. "Who, me? Not anymore."

xxx

"You shouldn't listen to what Meiko says too much!" said a green-haired girl named Gumi as she wolfed down the bland cafeteria food as though it was a gourmet feast. "She's being grouchy because of what happened last year."

"What happened last year?" said Luka as she picked at the dry and hard lump of chicken before her. Gumi was an enthusiastic freshman percussionist who Luka had run into on the way to the dining hall. Recognizing Luka's newness, she had latched onto her.

Gumi shrugged. "I'm just a freshman so I wasn't there, but I heard that Meiko was a really good pianist. She played with Lily for Lily's sophomore recital. But I think...well, a lot of drama happened?" Gumi frowned meditatively, staring up at the ceiling. "Something like that. Anyways, it's weird you transferred here in the middle of the year! What made you leave your old school?"

"My father wanted me to study here," said Luka. She looked around the dining hall. It was fairly full, students sitting at tables talking about something or other. Miku was nowhere to be seen - after that brief meeting in the piano room, Luka hadn't been able to find her anywhere.

Though, Luka quickly told herself, that made sense. Vocalo may be small, but it wasn't so small that Luka could see the same people multiple times in one day all that easily.

"Oh, your dad," Gumi nodded. "My parents didn't want me to go here, actually." She laughed. "They didn't think I could make much of a living if I went here, but all that is four years away! Too early to worry about it now, right?"

Luka stared at Gumi, who was relaxedly leaning back in her chair and sipping her orange juice. Too early? For Luka, who had started studying piano since she was three, who attended masterclasses, festivals, and competitions as early as she could, who read more books than she could count detailing music theory, technique, the lives of famous pianists, such a relaxed worldview was almost impossible to imagine. She couldn't forget Meiko's words, swirling in her head - to stand out, she had to be extraordinary_._

xxx

The next day, as she sat in her first class - music history - Luka heard the door to the classroom open. Glancing back, Luka saw a rather shame-faced looking Miku. She caught Miku's eye briefly as Miku went to sit next to some blonde-haired girl, and after class Miku took off as quickly as a bullet. Luka gaped at her speedy exit as she hurriedly stuffed her notebook into her bag and ran after her. The after-class crowd was thick, but Luka could see Miku's head making its way through the crowd and Luka followed.

After a while, the crowd thinned, and Luka continued walking down the path, looking around. She was in front of the old piano building now, and stepping inside Luka glanced up and down the halls. It was empty and quiet, due to it being around time for lunch, but Luka was sure that she had seen Miku come this way...where had she gone? Frowning, Luka's gaze swept the area before she felt someone poke her on the shoulder. Gasping, Luka whirled around to see a smiling Miku.

"Hey, why were you following me?" Miku asked, still grinning.

Luka blushed despite herself. "You were late to class."

Miku raised her eyebrows. "I was practicing piano! There are more important things to do than sit in a stuffy classroom and learn things we all learned before."

"Music history is important," said Luka. "I read biographies-"

"That's boring," Miku said, solemnly, before she smiled again. "Anyways, you didn't answer my question! Why were you following me? Don't tell me it's just because I was late to class."

"Sorry, it's because you were late to class."

Miku looked wounded. "Ahh, that hurts...and here I thought I was special..." Her face was so exaggeratedly sad that Luka couldn't help but to laugh. At the sight of Luka laughing, Miku's expression brightened and she started to laugh a little too.

"Do you want to get lunch?" Luka asked, once the laughter died down a little.

Miku shook her head, smiling. "It's okay. I already ate."

Miku already ate? That was a little strange, considering how the class was at nine in the morning and two hours long. Miku either ate on the way to the piano building, or had a huge breakfast, or didn't want to eat with Luka. Actually, the latter option was the most likely, and Luka felt her heart sink. "Uh...really?"

"Oh, wait," said Miku, a flash of horror speeding across her features, "it's not that I don't _want_ to eat with you! It's just that I already-oof!" She stumbled as a blonde boy, who had just exited the practice room behind her, bumped into her. Luka scrambled to steady Miku, but Miku caught her balance on the doorknob of the room the boy just left. As for the boy, he blithely continued walking down the hallway as though nothing happened. Luka stared after him in disbelief.

"Wait," she called after him. "Aren't you going to apologize?"

The boy stopped and turned, staring at Luka. "Apologize?"

Luka could hardly believe it. "Yes, apologize!"

The boy looked a little annoyed. "What do I need to apologize about? I have a class soon."

"You just bumped into her!" Luka gestured at Miku.

The boy glanced briefly in Miku's direction, eyebrows furrowed. "Um, right..." he made an exaggerated and somewhat sarcastic bow in Miku's direction. "I am very sorry for bumping into you, _ma'am._ Can I go now?"

"Hold it," said Luka, "what's your name?"

To Luka's surprise, the boy smirked. "My name? Is that what this is all about? You could've just asked, you know. I'm Kagamine Len. I study guitar. See you around." With a quick wave, he left.

Luka groaned and ran a hand through her hair. "Geez, that guy was really rude...are you okay, Miku?"

"I'm fine," said Miku with a quick smile. "Don't worry about it! Um..." she looked down. "I should go practice piano now, probably."

Luka bit her lip. Miku's spirits suddenly seemed a lot lower than it was before - not that Luka could blame her. "Will you be in this room?" She gestured at the door Miku was standing in front of.

"Huh?" Miku glanced up at Luka. "Oh, yeah," she laughed, weakly. "That Len person just left it, so it's empty. Might as well use it instead of looking for an empty room, right?"

"If you don't mind, how about I grab lunch and eat with you while you practice?" Luka asked. After what had just happened, the thought of leaving Miku alone to practice piano by herself suddenly seemed very depressing. Meiko's dismissal of Miku as unexceptional the day before swirled in Luka's mind too. Did Miku have any friends? Either way, Luka couldn't very well leave Miku alone now, after that.

Miku's eyes widened. "Really? You'd do that?"

"Yeah," said Luka with a shrug she hoped was casual.

A wide smile spread on Miku's face. "Great! That's...that's really great! I'll just be in here," Miku waved her arm unnecessarily at the door, "so, um, just knock or come in or something after you get your food."

Luka couldn't help but to smile too - Miku was pretty cute when she was enthusiastic like this. "Sure."

That said, Miku practically bounced into the practice room, and Luka began the walk over to the dining hall, her thoughts heavy. Miku seemed to have recovered somewhat from Len bumping into her, but still...what was with that? Were people in this school just rude in general? Meiko hadn't been too kind the day before, and Lily _did_ bail on Luka for quartet practice...but no. Luka shook her head quickly. There was no point in getting too worked up about social things here. She was at Vocalo for the purpose of improving her piano skills, but still, it was strange. With a sigh, Luka stuffed her hands in her pockets and decided to think about it later. For now, she just had to focus on getting something to eat.


End file.
